was “I am weak, how can I compromise? I am strong, why should I compromise?” The notion of there being “a common good” and “a middle ground” that we all compromise for and upon—not to mention a higher community calling we work to sustain—was simply not in the lexicon. So when I came back to Washington in 1988, after thirteen years abroad, it was with a certain eagerness to rediscover America. But over my nearly thirty years now of reporting from Washington, what I found instead was that with every passing year American politics more and more resembled the Middle East that I had left. Democrats
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